Fréderic Moyersoen presents a new take on the us-versus-them genre with Nuns on the Run, published by Mayfair Games. Most of the players are novices who are eager to secretly explore the grand abbey at night in order to fulfill their “secret wish.” They sneak through corridors searching for keys and treasures. (What treasures could a novice be searching for? Forbidden cookies? A soft mattress? Or narcotics? Or a book of witchcraft?)

While sneaking through the abbey, they must remain watchful for the abbess or prioress who are on patrol to ensure that pure novices remain that way. These characters are controlled by other players who want to nab the novices before they can make it back into bed.

Nuns on the Run is a like a reverse of Scotland Yard. Players play either as a novice, or as the Abbess or Prioress. The Novices move in secret and avoid being seen or heard by the Abbess or Prioress. The goal is to make it to the location on the board where the novice can get her secret wish and return to their room without being detected. All of the novices move in secret by marking their movement and locations on hidden sheets. The Abbess and Prioress move on regulated paths around the board, but can diverge and chase down novices that they see or hear. The player or players who complete their secret wishes and return to their rooms win, or the Abbess and Prioress win if they catch a certain number of novices.

Power Grid is the updated release of the Friedemann Friese crayon game Funkenschlag. It removes the crayon aspect from network building in the original edition, while retaining the fluctuating commodities market like Crude: The Oil Game and an auction round intensity reminiscent of The Princes of Florence.

The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someones network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.

However, as plants are purchased, newer, more efficient plants become available, so by merely purchasing, youre potentially allowing others access to superior equipment.

Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials (coal, oil, garbage, and uranium) needed to power said plants (except for the renewable windfarm solar plants, which require no fuel), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.

The call comes in... 911, what is your emergency? On the other end is a panicked response of FIRE! Moments later you don the protective suits that will keep you alive, gather your equipment and rush to the scene of a blazing inferno. The team has only seconds to assess the situation and devise a plan of attack – then you spring into action like the trained professionals that you are. You must face your fears, never give up, and above all else work as a team because the fire is raging, the building is threatening to collapse, and lives are in danger.

You must succeed. You are the brave men and women of fire rescue; people are depending on you. This is what you do every day.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a cooperative game of fire rescue.

There are two versions of game play in Flash Point, a basic game and expert game.
In both variants, players are attempting to rescue 7 of 10 victims from a raging building fire.
As the players attempt to rescue the victims, the fire spreads to other parts of the building, causing structural damage and possibly blocking off pathways through the building. Each turn a player may spend action points to try to extinguish fires, move through the building, move victims out of the building or perform various special actions such as moving emergency vehicles. If 4 victims perish in the blaze or the building collapses from taking too much structural damage, the players lose. Otherwise, the players win instantly when they rescue a 7th victim.

The expert variant included in the game adds thematic elements such as flash over, combustible materials, random setup, and variations on game difficulty from novice to heroic. The game includes a double sided board with two different building plans and several expansion maps are available.

The galaxy has been a peaceful place for many years. After the ruthless Terran–Hegemony War (30.027–33.364), much effort has been employed by all major spacefaring species to prevent the terrifying events from repeating themselves. The Galactic Council was formed to enforce precious peace, and it has taken many courageous efforts to prevent the escalation of malicious acts. Nevertheless, tension and discord are growing among the seven major species and in the Council itself. Old alliances are shattering, and hasty diplomatic treaties are made in secrecy. A confrontation of the superpowers seems inevitable – only the outcome of the galactic conflict remains to be seen. Which faction will emerge victorious and lead the galaxy under its rule?

A game of Eclipse places you in control of a vast interstellar civilization, competing for success with its rivals. You will explore new star systems, research technologies, and build spaceships to wage war with. There are many potential paths to victory, so you need to plan your strategy according to the strengths and weaknesses of your species, while paying attention to the other civilizations endeavors.

The shadows of the great civilizations are about to eclipse the galaxy. Lead your people to victory!

(9) easy game to carry around, and plays extremely tactical with the right people2014-03-26 - Kaden

THE GAME OF BLUFFING

Players in Mascarade start with six coins and a randomly dealt character card. Characters stay face up just long enough for players to more or less memorize them, then are turned face down. Your goal is to be the first player to hold 13 coins, and while you start nearly halfway to that goal, you can go down just as surely as you can go up!

On a turn you take one of three actions:

1) Announce your character: Claim the power of a certain character and take the associated action. You dont have to have that character card in front of you to take this action, but if someone else says that theyre that character and reveals the card to prove it, that player takes the action instead while you lose one coin to the tribunal.

2) Swap cards or not: Take another players character card along with yours, place them under the table, shuffle them around a bit, then give one card back to the other player while keeping one for yourself. You (presumably) know whether you changed characters and can have some idea of who you are now, but that other player might be in the dark.

3) Secretly look at your character: Look at your character card to make sure of who you are.

Play continues until one player obtains 13 coins and wins!

Mascarade includes more character cards than the number of players, so not all characters will be used in each game. The rules suggest that you use certain characters in your first games, but once you know the game, you can try many other distributions. The first edition of Mascarade contains 13 characters. The beggar (woman) has no special ability. Bruno Faidutti says on his blog: ...she has no ability so far. I always like to find blank cards in a game, for which I can imagine my own effects. Here, the card is not blank – it has a picture and a name, but you can devise its effect, and Im sure therell be some prize for the best idea.

In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them. These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.

At the beginning of each round, players each select, secretly and simultaneously, one of the seven roles which correspond to the phases in which the round progresses. By selecting a role, players activate that phase for this round, giving each player the opportunity to perform that phases action. For example, if one player chooses the settle role, each player has the opportunity to settle one of the planets from their hand. The player who has chosen the role, however, gets a bonus that applies only to him. But bonuses may also be acquired through developments, so one must be aware when another player also takes advantage of his choice of role.

You are the leader of one of the 7 great cities of the Ancient World. Gather resources, develop commercial routes and affirm your military supremacy. Build your city and erect an architectural wonder which will transcend future times.

7 Wonders lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player, as in Fairy Tale or a Magic: the Gathering booster draft. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided as in Bauzas Ghost Stories.) Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends.

In essence 7 Wonders is a card development game along the lines of Race for the Galaxy or Dominion. Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Unlike Magic or Fairy Tale, however, each card is played immediately after being drafted, so youll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how his choices might affect what youve already built up. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.

Though the box of earlier editions is listed as being for 3-7 players, there is an official 2-player variant included in the instructions.

Get ready to enter the poor and dreary Whitechapel district in London 1888 – the scene of the mysterious Jack the Ripper murders – with its crowded and smelly alleys, hawkers, shouting merchants, dirty children covered in rags who run through the crowd and beg for money, and prostitutes – called the wretched – on every street corner.

The board game Letters from Whitechapel, which plays in 90-150 minutes, takes the players right there. One player plays Jack the Ripper, and his goal is to take five victims before being caught. The other players are police detectives who must cooperate to catch Jack the Ripper before the end of the game. The game board represents the Whitechapel area at the time of Jack the Ripper and is marked with 199 numbered circles linked together by dotted lines. During play, Jack the Ripper, the Policemen, and the Wretched are moved along the dotted lines that represent Whitechapels streets. Jack the Ripper moves stealthily between numbered circles, while policemen move on their patrols between crossings, and the Wretched wander alone between the numbered circles.

It was the age of gods and goddess. Zeus (King of the Gods), Poseidon (Lord of the Seas), and Hades (God of the Underworld) had agreed to separate the sky, the ocean, and the underworld. Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, would take over the rest of the earth. But the Norse gods were displeased by the decision. They called warriors and disciples to take the world from the Greek gods. The gods atop Mt. Olympus also called their warriors to defend them. During this war of the gods, a mass of warriors died, and their souls were sealed in a jar.

And now they are waiting for you to release them.

In the deck-building game Kanzume Goddess, you will be one of the Gods of mythology. Each God in the game has its own special powers which players can use to their benefit. Players will purchase cards from the center of the table to add to their decks. They will use these cards to purchase more cards and to do battle with the other players. These cards can be used to damage other players, to gain more cards, to draw more cards from your deck, and to protect yourself from damage. The last player with energy left is the last God standing and the winner of the game.

Kanzume Goddess can be played as an individual match with 2-6 players or as a team match if you play with 4 or 6 players.

To play, each player looks at a picture of Inkblots on a page (similar to ones on the box lid) of which there are 75 pages of them to choose from. A special die is rolled which tells you the category to look for eg Food, Creatures, People, Wearables etc. You now have a time limit to look at the picture and write down as many things in that category that you see. At the end of the time each player reads their picture list and shows which inkblot the picture relates to. To score a point, the majority of the other players must agree that they see what you see
and you must persuade them if you can. This often leads to amusement, as you find out rather quickly that what you see clearly is not what the other players are seeing.

Hanabi—named for the Japanese word for fireworks—is a cooperative game in which players try to create the perfect fireworks show by placing the cards on the table in the right order.

The card deck consists of five different colors of cards, numbered 1–5 in each color. For each color, the players try to place a row in the correct order from 1–5. Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite, as in this game you hold your cards so that theyre visible only to other players. To assist other players in playing a card, you must give them hints regarding the numbers or the colors of their cards. Players must act as a team to avoid errors and to finish the fireworks display before they run out of cards.

(9) Good abstract combination of pieces and game mechanics, but may takes long time to play for multi players.2014-03-16 - Kaden

DEEP STRATEGY WITH MULTILATERAL CONFLICT

It is a momentous time for the Post-Human Assembly. Having fully populated the Milky Way Galaxy, the Great Houses turn their eyes towards a neighboring galaxy – endeavoring to venture across the inter-galactic void to stake claim among uncharted stars. Each Great House seeks to dominate this new galaxy, for in the race to achieve hegemony, only one can be victorious.

Hegemonic is a fast-paced game of galactic expansion, empire-building, conflict, and intrigue. As the leader of a Great House, you must expand your control over the sectors of the galaxy, build up your industrial, political, and martial capability, develop awe-inspiring technologies, and carefully time your actions to outmaneuver the other empires.

Deep Strategy
The players are in control, shaping the unexplored galaxy to support their strategic plans instead of having choices dictated by chance.

In Disc Duelers, players control a team of 3-5 characters, which are drafted during the initial set-up. Each of the 52 characters is represented by a card and a disc. The card shows ratings for movement and attacks, plus a special ability. The game can be played on any flat surface, although a four-foot-square table is recommended. Players place everyday objects on the table to act as terrain.

On his turn, a player activates a character. He may then move and attack by flicking the corresponding disc. A moving disc that hits terrain suffers no damage, but hitting other discs causes one damage to the active character. An attacking disc suffers a point of damage if it hits terrain and causes a point of damage to another character if it hits its disc. Knocking a disc into terrain or off the table inflicts an additional point of damage. A character is eliminated when it takes five points of damage. A characters ratings determine how many times it can move and attack each time it is activated. Optional item cards, if used, can be acquired during play and provide additional actions.

Disc Duelers includes several play options, including classic elimination, point capture (points scored for eliminating a character, but that character returns to action), soccer or volleyball with a neutral disc representing the ball, and a race.

Duel of Ages II is a time-scramble board game played between two opposing sides each having 1 to 4 players, with uneven size allowable. Each side controls a selected team of 8-12 characters from different ages of time: Ancient, Colonial, Modern and Future. The goal is to win greater glory in overcoming adventures and in tactical combat than the opposing team.

Although multiple styles of play are available, the standard DoA game-play involves seven phases:

Selection of each side’s team of 8-12 characters (kept secret).
Building of the interlocking puzzle map to best suit your character’s skills.
Selection of a Team White and a Team Black based on character Respect.
Revealing and equipping of characters.
Bringing characters onto the map based on Respect.
A sequence of game rounds where characters maneuver on the map to accomplish adventures, hunt enemy characters and avoid dangerous situations.
Counting of total achievements won. The team with the most achievements wins.

The game can end at a certain time or after a certain number of rounds.

Game play is an unusual mix of tactical wargame-style combat, treasure gathering, and non-combat character teamwork and adventuring, and has no close comparison to other games. Differences between characters are significant, with many having poor fighting skills. Game play and winning is therefore an act of balancing fighting, treasure-gathering and adventuring.

In Geistesblitz, five wooden items sit on the table waiting to be caught: a white ghost, a green bottle, a cute grey mouse, a blue book, and a comfortable red chair. Each card in the deck shows pictures of two objects, with one or both objects colored the wrong way. With all players playing at the same time, someone reveals a card, then players grab for the right object – but which object is right?

On top of the rules for traditional Jenga, each time you draw a brick, you must read whats written on it and answer the question or do what youre told to. As the title let you guess, some of the questions are love-related.

You are head of a family in an Italian city-state, a city run by a weak and corrupt court. You need to manipulate, bluff and bribe your way to power. Your object is to destroy the influence of all the other families, forcing them into exile. Only one family will survive...

In Coup, you want to be the last player with influence in the game, with influence being represented by face-down character cards in your playing area.

Eight-Minute Empire: Legends is a standalone sequel to the area control game Eight-Minute Empire and does not require the original game to play. Just like the original game, players take turns selecting a card from six on display. The card has an action that the player takes immediately, and actions help players take over the map – but whats new and different in this version?

Instead of goods, cards now have special abilities, which give players unique advantages and ways to break the rules throughout the game
Each card has a unique, beautiful illustration of a fantasy creature or location
A modular board for increased variety
New variants

Is Eight-Minute Empire: Legends still playable in eight minutes? Yes, but only if you hurry!

The players will lead their Greek characters into a bold action of besieging Troy and rescuing the beautiful Helene.
The first one to reach 12 points will be the winner.

During the game, various stages will unfold and during these, the victory cards are put into play. As it happens, a player can make his own army stronger or weaken those of his opponents by playing the correct cards.

After the siege, the strongest players will receive a victory card of their choice, all cards in play will be discarded, and a new phase will unfold with the cards remaining in each players hand. Each player will then receive 3 new cards and the next battle round will commence.

Classic negotiation game in which players take turns being The Boss arranging deals between specific players on how best to divide piles of money. Players can sabotage or kill deals theyre not happy with.

Rarely is a game stripped down to its bare essense as cleanly as Im the Boss! is. Up to fifteen deals can be made over the course of the game, and a player who is part of a successful deal will receive a certain amount of money.

How much money? Well, that depends on whatever deal is made among the players involved, as negotiated by that rounds boss. Complicating matters quite a bit, however, each player has a hand of action cards that can be used to derail negotiations, insert themselves into a deal, take over the role of boss, and otherwise muck with the smooth flow of deal-making that other players had hoped to achieve. Nertz to them! If you want to make a deal, you gotta cut me a share!

Once nine deals have been made, a die is rolled after each subsequent deal to determine whether the game ends (with the odds increasing each time). Victory goes to whoever has the biggest bankroll!

The storyline in Friedemann Frieses Fearsome Floors (aka, Finstere Flure) continues the FFF-saga from Frieses earlier game, with players trying to escape from Fürst Fieso. Story aside, what we have is a wonderful race game in which the players must move through a dungeon as quickly as possible – or at least within 14 turns – before it crumbles over their heads.

Players could reach the exit in only seven turns if everything were peaceful and quiet, but unfortunately the dungeon is also the home of a very hungry monster! Each round, players take turns moving one disk at a time, flipping over the disk after moving it to reveal the movement points available for the next round. They can try to lead the monster, who is always after fresh prey, to opponents pieces, but they may find themselves eaten instead! Pieces can slide along blood slicks or might be crushed between a boulder and a wall. You can even try to get the monster to teleport to another part of the board, where it will fall upon its next victim!

In The Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources (cards) - wood, grain, brick, sheep, or stone - to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game.

Setup includes randomly placing large hexagonal tiles (each showing a resource or the desert) in a honeycomb shape and surrounding them with water tiles, some of which contain ports of exchange. Number disks, which will correspond to die rolls (two 6-sided dice are used), are placed on each resource tile. Each player is given two settlements (think, houses) and roads (sticks) which are, in turn, placed on intersections and borders of the resource tiles. Players collect a hand of resource cards based on which hex tiles their last-placed house is adjacent to. A robber pawn is placed on the desert tile.

A turn consists of possibly playing a development card, rolling the dice, everyone (perhaps) collecting resource cards based on the roll and position of houses (or upgraded cities - think, hotels) unless a 7 is rolled, turning in resource cards (if possible and desired) for improvements, trading cards at a port, and trading resource cards with other players. If a 7 is rolled, the active player moves the robber to a new hex tile and steals resource cards from other players who have built structures adjacent to that tile.

Points are accumulated by building settlements and cities, having the longest road and the largest army (from some of the development cards), and gathering certain development cards that simply award victory points. When a player has gathered 10 points (some of which may be held in secret), he announces his total and claims the win.

The Settlers of Catan has won multiple awards and is one of the most popular games in recent history due to its amazing ability to appeal to experienced gamers as well as those new to the hobby.

It is a dark time. The once mighty empire of Arowyth has fractured, and the feudal lords have crowned themselves kings, each bent on expanding their realms and laying claim to the ancient imperial title. Alliances have worn thin, and the thirst for power has driven them to war with each other. But they are not the only forces vying for power. The Malador, foreign marauders, have taken advantage of the chaos to satisfy their lust for conquest and plunder by ravaging the land.

In War of Kings, you will assume the role of one of the rival kings. Immediately, you will be faced with decisions on every round of play about how best to expand your realm. During the Construction Phase, in which all players play simultaneously, you will generate resources, collect gold, build settlements, fortify them, and raise armies. The combat system provides many opportunities for tactical and strategic decisions. Wage war with our custom combat dice using a mechanic that engages both the attacking and defending player. You must also contend with the Maladorian Marauders, an evil horde controlled by a card-based mechanic that allows the players to decide how best to wreak havoc on the other kingdoms of Arowyth.

It is a game of critters in tanks and they do pew pew pew. Our armymals are very special creatures: they drive tanks and have strong personalities just like the noble leaders of the past. In Armymals you will meet dozens of characters like Narwhaleon Bonaparte, Abrahamster Lincoln or Lionidas – each with its own unique artwork and thematic abilities. The game is an action packed, fast strategy experience. Brightly coloured tanks move across a hexagon-tiled battlefield filled with three-dimensional scenery representing trees, barns etc. The colourful board and the cute animals with a twist of historical characters make the game accessible to kids and hilarious to adults. We used the same principle while creating the rules, they have an increasing complexity to ensure fun for both beginners and hardcore players.

Armymals use an intuitive system based on a set of unique dice and cards to generate a different choice of actions each turn. Animals in tanks are able to carry out many orders: moving, shooting, accumulating energy, using character skills and more. To win players will have to collect Victory Points. They come from completing Operations, which are chosen at the beginning of the game and can be different each time. Depending on active Operations players will have to destroy enemy tanks, capture the flag, control strategic locations, complete crazy tasks from mission deck and more.

Coup: Reformation, an expansion for the original version of Coup: City State from La Mame Games, adds new cards to the game and rules for factions and team play that increases tension in the early stages for four or more players and (thanks to 15 additional character cards) allows Coup to be better played with up to ten players.

With Coup: Reformation, each player must declare himself either Catholic (Loyalist in the second edition) or Protestant (Resistant) and can target only members of the other faction. Conversion is possible, however, for yourself or for another player by paying a charitable donation to the Almshouse (Treasury). Like all factions, once you have eliminated or converted the other group, you just descend into in-fighting, so theres still only one winner and no second place.

Coup: Reformation adds a new fluid team dynamic to Coup as players jostle with their allegiance to take advantage or seek protection in the early stages of the game.

Now it is time to go railroading in Europa. Just like TransAmerica, players work together building a railroad network, but this time it is across Europe instead of the United States. The first to have their five cities connected wins the round - the others lose points for being too slow! After 3-4 rounds, the player with the most points wins the game!

Players are notorious gang bosses in the heyday of organized crime in Chicago during the 1920s. The goal of the game is to take control of the main legal and illegal sources of profit, meaning bars, game rooms, jazz clubs and revue theaters. To do this, each player sends his men to intimidate the owners of these businesses and gain them to their cause. Most of the businesses even change ownership at the game table! The winner is the first player who, by playing poker combinations with his cards, takes control over 3 businesses of the same kind, 4 different ones, or any 5.

As soon as one player has six separate stacks in front of herself or all players have no cards left in hand, the round ends. Any player without stacks topped by cards of all three colors scores zero points for the round; all other players sum the numbers shown on the uppermost card of each stack they have. Rounds continue until at least one player has scored at least 150 points. In this case, the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

Age of War is a quick-playing game of conquest. Fourteen cards are laid out at the start of the game, each showing one castle and the symbols required to conquer this castle, with the symbols separated into battle lines. Each castle belongs to a clan, with some clans having only a single castle and some having up to four castles.

A player starts his turn by rolling seven dice, the six sides of which show archery, cavalry, daimyo, and 1-3 infantry. He then selects a card and uses the symbols rolled to conquer exactly one of the battle lines on this card (by placing the appropriate dice on that line). If he can do this, he then rolls the remaining dice, ideally conquering another line; if he cant conquer a line, he removes one die from play, then rolls again. His turn ends when either he conquers every line on the card (in which case he claims it) or he no longer has dice available to roll.

Each card is worth a number of victory points. You can conquer cards owned by other players, but you need to conquer an additional daimyo line in the process. If a player owns all the castles of one clan, however, those castles are secure and cannot be stolen. Whats more, these castles are now worth more points because youve united the clan under one ruler (you) and strengthened your hold over Japan.

When the last card is claimed, players tally their points, and whoever has the highest score wins.

In the card game Diamonsters, each player starts the game with an identical hand of cards, each of which has a cartoonish picture of a monster and a value from one to five. Each round one card is dealt from the deck face up. Some monsters are more valuable than others, and some eat the diamonds found on other cards. Players attempt to win the round by playing the highest card in front of them, but cards of equal value cancel out. The winner of each round adds his winning card — plus the face-up card — to his collection of cards won. The first player to collect three cards of the same value or five diamonds wins the game.

Bolide presents itself as a revolutionary car racing game since no cards or dice move the cars.

Each driver can take total control of his own car by applying a move mechanism based on a second pawn, able to reproduce the real accelerations, decelerations and inertial movements of the cars during the races.

To learn such a mechanism means to learn driving a racing car and to experience a very high simulation level: the drivers can work out the best routes along the squares of the track and push their car at the speed they want, racing opponents and making breathtaking over-takings or extreme braking.

They really play with their driving style. But they should make sure they preserve their engine and tires for the last part of the race...

In Spin Monkeys, one of four winners in Rio Grande Games 2009 game design competition, you are a monkey in the jungle when one day a wayward carnival makes a stop. You and your fellow monkeys jump in the bumper cars and away you go. You have no idea why there is fruit all over the arena floor, but you aim to grab as much of it for yourself as possible!

Game synopsis:

Spin Monkeys has each player starting on a junction at the edge of the board with a hand of 5 cards. The cards have 8 possible degrees of rotation from 45 to a full 360 degrees. On each turn players choose a card, rotate their monkey clockwise to the degree, then move one junction per played card in front of them. On the first turn you only go one junction, but as the game goes you can travel more junctions as you play more cards, picking up all the fruit you glide over, apples, oranges and bananas, leaving peels. Some cards have text that let you do special actions, like taking more fruit, or rotating during your movement. As you go faster, traveling more junctions per turn, it becomes harder to avoid running into the sides of the board or other monkeys. When you bump into the side of the board you lose cards, slowing you down. If you crash into another monkey you get to spin them, and steal a piece of fruit. After you play your hand, you get 5 new cards to direct your monkey with. Game goes until only one kind of fruit is left on the board. Most points in fruit wins!

Artificium is a card-driven development game. Some cards produce resources or transform one type of resources into another and award victory points, while others let you perform actions. Carefully planning the chain of cards that you will play during the game turn is the key to success.

NOIR: Killer vs. Inspector is a two-player game of hidden identities and deduction. Each player receives a secret identity from among 25 suspects and an open role that determines his available moves and victory conditions.

The Killer plays by eliminating players, focusing more on intuition and reading his opponent. The Inspector uses secret information and his ability to accuse suspects to create a play style more focused around logical elimination of possibilities.

The game plays in 5 to 15 minutes, and is contained in a 54-card deck box for easy travel play.

The Dragon & Flagon is a tavern world-renowned for its most magical drink, The Dragon. Legend has it that one sip of The Dragon can give a hero wondrous abilities beyond their wildest dreams — but with a tavern full of thirsty adventurers and only one flagon left, things are bound to go wrong. Prepare your magic and grab your weapon because theres only one true objective in this brawl — and its not just a sip of The Dragon. Only one can win and emerge with the reputation as the greatest fighter ever seen within the walls of The Dragon & Flagon!

The Dragon & Flagon is a game of chaos and mayhem for 2-8 players. Throw mugs, smash chairs, swing from the chandelier, sip from the legendary Dragon Flagon, cast spells, and pull the rug out from under your fellow adventurers as you attempt to build up your reputation and win the day!

Play as one of nine unique characters in a 3D tavern environment that can be set up differently every time. Multiple play modes add even more variety.

Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES.

In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.

Designed by Glenn Drover, this boardgame allows you to revisit the age of exploration and discovery. Take on the role of a colonial power seeking fame, glory, and riches in the New World. As you proceed through three ages, you can launch expeditions of discovery, colonize regions, expand your merchant fleet, build capitol buildings that give your nation distinct advantages, develop your economy, and, if necessary, declare war.

Though originally published for 5 players, the game is playable by 6 with the original components and board configuration with addition of a set of figures in another color. This was originally offered as an expansion and an incentive to pre-order the game. A 6 player expansion is also in the Glenn Drovers Empires: Builder Expansion, along with new capital buildings and National Advantage tiles.

A tiny free promotional demonstration version of real-time pattern recognition game Spot it!.

In standard Dobble, there are 55 cards, each with 8 symbols. In this free demo version, there are 16 cards (of smaller size), each with 6 symbols (from a subset of the full versions set of symbols). As in standard Dobble, each pair of cards has exactly 1 symbol in common, which is the basis of the simple real-time pattern recognition games included.

Prehistoric people were fishing, hunting and gathering during their wandering. It was important to carry as many things with them as possible in order to move easily. They couldn’t speak, but Dudab was one among their primitive words meaning sorry. Lead everybody else by the nose, and keep ahead of everyone.

When its your turn in Dudab, you can choose one of the two possibilities: lay down a card or draw a card. Then the next players turn in clockwise order starts. Players need to collect as few cards and as few victory points as possible. For this aim, they have to be very tactical, and say Dudab with proper timing. The player who can lead everybody else by the nose and collect the fewest victory points wins.

Can you keep calm while bids are rising? Experience the exhilaration of real life auctions!

In Going, Going, GONE!, players try to win items by bidding on five simultaneous auctions while the Auctioneer counts down from 10 to 1! Players bid on these five simultaneous auctions by physically dropping their wooden cubes (known as Bucks) into any or all of the five transparent Auction Cups, each of which represents an auction for one or two Item Cards.

At the end of the countdown, the Auctioneer says GONE! and quickly places the Auction Paddle over the five Auction Cups to close the auctions. The player who has the most Bucks in each Auction Cup wins that auction and takes the Item Cards for that auction. Collections of items may be sold throughout the game for more Bucks, or players can keep building their collections to sell them at the end of the game. The player with the most Bucks at the end of the game wins!

Going, Going, GONE! is a simple-to-learn, exciting and unique game for players of all skill levels! It is ideal for playing in public spaces. Since the players control the pacing of the game and the variants used, the game adapts to the playing style of the players.

Rise of Augustus

In Augustus, you vie with your fellow players to complete objective cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with legionnaire meeples in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag, with all players gaining the benefit equally, but interestingly, the bag contains more of some symbols than others.

So the pivotal skill youll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives youll start the game with (youre dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives youll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven objectives.

In this latest collaboration between Bruno Cathala and Ludovic Maublanc, players must buy the favor of the gods in their race to be the first player to build two cities in the Ancient Greek island group known as the Cyclades.

Victory requires respect for all the gods - players cannot afford to sacrifice to only one god, but must pay homage to each of five gods in turn. Each turn, the players bid for the favors of the gods, as only one player can have the favor of each god per turn - and each player is also limited to the favor of a single god per turn.

Formula D is a high stakes Formula One type racing game where the players race simulated cars with the hope of crossing the finish line first. This is a re-release of Formula Dé with several changes from the original format. Whilst old tracks can be used with the updated Formula D rules, the new game features boards that have an F1 track and a Street Track on the other side. These street tracks each have a novel inclusion or two to add greater theme -

In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand -- which can be hard to maintain during the many fits of maniacal laughter! The wooden Totem sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.

Get as much valuable treasure and coins as you can as everything counts at the end of this five-round game! Watch out for treasure that isnt treasure at all, and draft your team of treasure hunters wisely. Only two treasures are available in each of the three seasons, so get it while you can!

In Treasure Hunter, treasures are placed on the game board first. Then all players are given a hand of nine cards from which to draft, drawing one card and passing to the left or the right depending on which round is being played. At the end of drafting, all players will have a hand of nine cards and a little knowledge of what the other players may have in their hands as well.

All players must play any and all cards from their drafted hand of nine for each season they have cards for, whether they want one of the two treasures or not.

Leaping Lemmings is a humorous game for 2-6 players. Each player controls a cloned clan of lemmings that have been specially trained to compete with the other lemming clans, all trying to scurry down a canyon and hurl themselves over a cliff. Distance and style points are important. One lemming diving with style and élan is worth as many as five of the more mundane divers. But beware the hungry eagles circling overhead or your lemmings might not even make the cliff edge!

Toc Toc Woodman Second edition:
A dexterity game where nine plastic tree segments are stacked up. Each tree segment has four bark sections around it. On their turn, a player gets two taps with the axe to try and knock off pieces of bark from the tree segments for one point a piece. But be careful, if a tree segment comes down its minus 5 points! A quick unique dexterity game.

Have you seen that flower in the garden before? Are you sure? To become a master gardener, you must prove that you can identify all blooms you see and remember where they are located, and Illusion will test those memory and recognition skills.

A mini version of Pitchcar with smaller track pieces. Contains 6 straight and 10 curve track pieces that allow the construction of more than 10 different racing circuits. 8 wooden cars are included as well.

In Looterz, players are racing to collect the most loot possible by recruiting a team of Looterz. Your loot is never safe though as many Looterz have the ability to steal Loot from other players.

A players turn involves four phases: Recruitment, Looter Activation, Recruitment, then Sacrifice. Each recruitment phase allows the player to draw a card from the deck or put a Looter from their hand into play. Players are then allowed to choose to activate their Looterz in any order. Finally, if players have more than three Looterz in play, they must discard down to three.

Looting is resolved by rolling dice. The number of hearts on a Looter indicates the number of dice a player may roll during the Loot resolution.

What are these strange symbols on the map? They are code for locations where spies must contact secret agents!

Two rival spymasters know the agent in each location. They deliver coded messages telling their field operatives where to go for clandestine meetings. Operatives must be clever. A decoding mistake could lead to an unpleasant encounter with an enemy agent – or worse, with the assassin! Both teams race to contact all their agents, but only one team can win.

Codenames: Pictures differs from the original Codenames in that the agents are no longer represented by a single word, but by an image that contains multiple elements.

In the game, players represent one of the seven Great Powers of Europe (Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, Russia or Turkey) in the years prior to World War I. Play begins in the Spring of 1901, and players make both Spring and Autumn moves each year. There are only two kinds of military units: armies and fleets. On any given turn, each of your military units has limited options: they can move into an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in an attack on an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in defending an adjoining territory, or hold their position. Players instruct each of their units by writing a set of orders. The outcome of each turn is determined by the rules of the game. There are no dice rolls or other elements of chance. With its incredibly simplistic movement mechanics fused to a significant negotiation element, this system is highly respected by many gamers.

In Voilà! each player tries to get as many points as possible by completing various dexterity tasks. In a turn the player pulls out a token from the bag, which defines how many tasks the player has to complete (either none, one or two). However, for a turn player has limited amount of time, which is kept hidden from him by another player.

After pulling out a token the player draws the corresponding amount of cards and tries to complete the tasks depicted of them. There are many different tasks, for example, throwing the token in the air and catching it, or creating a tower from acrobats and so on. After player has completed the task(s) he can either end the turn and thus get the points, or try to get more points by pulling out a new token and then completing the tasks. However, if the player chooses to continue, he must complete the task before he can end the turn and this is the risk - if the time runs out while he is still performing the task, the turn ends immediately and the player doesnt receive any points this turn (any cards the player completed during this turn are put in the discard pile).

The game ends after each player has had three turns and the winner is the one with most total points on his cards.

At the start of the racing card game Minuscule, each player randomly receives two betting cards (out of 14) and five action cards (out of 33). A betting card is numbered from 1 to 7, with two copies of each card.

Beginning with the starting player, each player lays one of the seven critter cards on the table, adding it to the foremost or hindmost position. At the end of the initial set up, the seventh critter card is flipped, marking it as the dark horse in the race. On a players turn, they must play an action card and execute its effect, e.g., moving the fourth critter card forward or backward two spaces, moving the number 6 critter card forward or backward one space, or exchanging one of your betting cards with an unused betting card.

Additionally, the player can pick up one of the three dark horse tokens, which is worth 5 points if the dark horse ends the race in the top three positions; if not, that token is worth -3 points.

After five turns, each player reveals their two betting cards and receives points according to the matching critter cards position: 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point(s) for first through seventh place. After accounting for the dark horse tokens, whoever has the most points wins.

In The Arabian Pots, you try to sort the pots by listening to the sounds they make when you shake them. The game includes three groups of three pots, with each group making a different sound when you shake it, as well as one pot that makes no sound.

Are you better at building with plastic bricks...or explaining how to do it? What if you have to build with your eyes closed or using only one hand? Or if you must explain it without speaking? Can you still be faster than your opponents?

Brick Party is a funny and frenzied game of crazy building! Reveal the special rule for the round, choose your teammate, and get ready. Then grab the blocks and build the shape you choose faster than the others! And in the next round? A new special rule, new partners, and new shapes...for a game thats never boring!

Brick Party contains 36 plastic construction bricks and 165 cards with shapes that must be built by the players.

In Camel Up, up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to suss out which will place first and second in a quick race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the more you can win — should you guess correctly, of course. Camels dont run neatly, however, sometimes landing on top of another one and being carried toward the finish line. Whos going to run when? That all depends on how the dice come out of the pyramid dice shaker, which releases one die at a time when players pause from their bets long enough to see whos actually moving!

In Junk Art, players are presented with junk from which they must create art. Thus the name.

Junk Art contains more than ten game modes, along with more than sixty big colorful wooden components. In one version of the game, players pile all of the wooden parts in the center of the table, then are dealt a number of cards, with each card depicting one of these parts. On a turn, a player presents their left-hand neighbor with two cards from their hand. This neighbor takes one card in hand, then takes the part shown on the other card and places it on their base or on other parts that theyve already placed. If something falls, it stays on the table and the player continues to build on whatever still stands. Once players have finished playing cards, whoever has the tallest work of art wins.

The cities in the West are not the safest place to be. In the disc-flicking game Flick em Up!, you can become an outlaw and rob banks, free prisoners, attack innocent bystanders... or you could become the Sheriff and try to protect the people of your city from these bandits!

Relive the great adventures of the West, face your enemies in street duels, use different guns and tactics to get what you want. You can follow the scenarios or create your own—the choice is yours, cowboy!

Keyflower is a game for two to six players played over four rounds. Each round represents a season: spring, summer, autumn, and finally winter. Each player starts the game with a home tile and an initial team of eight workers, each of which is colored red, yellow, or blue. Workers of matching colors are used by the players to bid for tiles to add to their villages. Matching workers may alternatively be used to generate resources, skills and additional workers, not only from the players own tiles, but also from the tiles in the other players villages and from the new tiles being auctioned.

Pacal, king of the Maya city Palenque, is trying to control all of the Yucatans resources. As kings of other cities, his opponents have their own ideas. By using your influence to control resources in Kingdoms across the Yucatan, you can establish yourself as the greatest king of the Maya. Build Temples. Alter borders. Control resources.

During the game, players represent the kings who oppose Pacal and use the ten different resource cards and spend action points to expand their empires, dominate the 14 Yucatan kingdoms through their control markers, exchange the opponents control markers, reserve control markers andor build Temples, scoring every time a Score Card is played by any player.

The player who has amassed the greatest amount of control over the Yucatan Peninsula in each of the scoring rounds is the winner.

Another Reiner Knizia standby, this game plays very well with varying numbers of people. The object is to accrue the most points during three rounds, which you do by spending your points to bid on sets of cards. Each turn the current player turns up one to three cards for all the players to bid on, with the highest bid taking all cards. The cards denote a commodity type and quantityvalue. The round ends when each players ships are full, or the commodity card deck is exhausted. After each round, points are awarded to each player having the most of a given commodity, and to the one with the most valuable total cargo load.

On a windin desert road in the middle of nowhere lies a town with no name. In this town youll find a place where no slight goes unanswered and no fight stays private, the roughest, toughest waterin hole in the Old West – the High Noon Saloon. If youre lookin for a fight, youve come to the right place.

In the action-packed game High Noon Saloon, you are a combatant in an all-out brawl fought in an Old West Saloon. Shoot it out from a distance or get in close and beat on your opponents directly. Move between different parts of the saloon to get the upper hand. Whatever you do, make sure to keep your guard up – if youre not careful, youll get beaten to a bloody pulp, shot full of holes, or both! The last one standin wins, and there aint no prize for second.

High Noon Saloon also includes special rules and cards for playing the game in teams.

Sushi Go Party!, an expanded version of the best-selling card game Sushi Go!, is a party platter of mega maki, super sashimi, and endless edamame. You still earn points by picking winning sushi combos, but now you can customize each game by choosing à la carte from a menu of more than twenty delectable dishes. Whats more, up to eight players can join in on the sushi-feast. Let the good times roll!

Know one knows why, but a yeti is sitting on the spaghetti. Spaghetti is laid across a bowl and the yeti is placed on top. Players take turns taking spaghetti from the bowl using a single hand and the player who knocks the yeti into the bowl loses. If more than 2 players are playing the player with the most spaghetti wins!

Buy your own stable of horses and race them at various courses. Bet on horses to win, place, or show, and collect big race purses when your horse wins!

More than twenty unique track cards are included in HomeStretch, so every game will be different. Luck and skill in picking the winning horses can bring you riches. HomeStretch is a fast-paced family game that will have you shouting for your horse to make it across the finish line!

The mythical realm of Hyperborea was ruled by an ancient civilization that used magical crystals as their main source of energy. With time, the Hyperboreans became greedy, and their search for power in the deep made the crystals unstable, causing earthquakes, mutations, droughts and floods. Hyperboreans just dug deeper, and only a few wise mages, foreseeing the inevitable, built an unbreakable magical barrier. When the unharnessed magical energy was unleashed from the deep, the Hyperborean civilization was destroyed in a single day, only the magical barrier preventing the disappearance of life from the whole land. The survivors living in the small outposts outside Hyperborea were now sealed out by the barrier. The knowledge of crystals was declared forbidden it was because too dangerous, or simply forgotten.

In Wonky, players try to get rid of the cards in their hand by stacking blocks on top of one another, ideally setting up the blocks so that someone else takes a spill and gets stuck with more cards in hand. The trick to doing this are the special blocks in the game: nine blocks — with three each in small, medium and large sizes — with three of the block sides being flat and three being curved. Set up the blocks in the right way, and you can block an opponents path to victory.

Welcome to the world of underground racing.
Your goal? To become the Street King in your own epic racing career.

You’ll start at the bottom using your “D” class cars.
With the help of your crew, cars, upgrades, and skills, you’ll
win races to gain credits and fame.

With these credits, you’ll be able to buy parts, hire crew or even advance to the next class. Another way to gain credits is by showing off your ride at local car shows. Youll also be able to choose locations where the race will take place.

50 black stories, 31 crimes, 49 corpses, 11 murders, 12 suicides and one deadly meal. How could that have happened? Black Stories are fiddly, morbid and mysterious riddles for teenagers and adults. The players try to reconstruct the crime by asking, guessing and fiddling about. A spooky card game just right for any party.

In Captain Sonar, you and your teammates control a state-of-the-art submarine and are trying to locate an enemy submarine in order to blow it out of the water before they can do the same to you. Every role is important, and the confrontation is merciless. Be organized and communicate because a captain is nothing without his crew: the Chief Mate, the Radio Operator, and the Engineer.

As in its parent game Kakerlakenpoker, Kakerlakenpoker Royal has nothing to do with poker – except that the game is all about bluffing, but with cards showing cockroaches, rats and stink bugs instead of queens, 10s and aces. To set up the game, shuffle the deck and deal the cards out to players. On a turn, a player takes one card from his hand, lays it face down on the table, slides it to a player of his choice, and declares a type of critter, e.g., Stink bug. The player receiving the card either:

Accepts the card, says either true or false, then reveals the card. If this player is wrong in her claim, she keeps the card on the table in front of her face up; if she is right, the player who gave her the card places it face up before him.

Passes the card to another player, peeking at it first, then keeping it face-down and either saying the original type of critter or saying a new type. This new player again has the choice of accepting the card or passing it, unless the card has already been seen by all other players in which case the player must accept it and make a truefalse claim.

The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on his turn or when a player has four cards of the same critter on the table in front of him. In either case, this player loses and everyone else wins.

To this, Kakerlakenpoker Royal adds new rules and new nasty royal critters to create more options for players during the game.

Its a party game about communication and realize the true thoughts of your friends!

Everyone has two chances to ask a YesNo question,each other players must secretly(face down) play a Yes(or No) card as answer , then everyone including the asking player, tries to bet There are how many YES among the answers, shuffle all answer cards and reveal them, you earn 1 point if your bet is correct!

Note! if all the answers are YES or NO, this means the question is not interesting, the asking player wont earn any point this turn; the other players all earn 1 point no matter their bet are correct or not.

microfilms is a microgame set in the world of redacted. Using only 25 cards, players try to deduce each other’s identities and objectives. microfilms features some of the same mechanisms as redacted, most notably the double-blind interrogation. The first spy to collect the right item and the correct information wins.

Cortex Challenge is the exciting new brain-busting card game by Esdevium Games, which uses the same fast-paced approach to family fun popularised by Dobble and Jungle Speed! Cortex Challenge tests up to six players’memory, cognition, and sensory perception. It even includes texture cards that are used during ‘Touch Challenges’, where players must guess what they are feeling, adding a unique element that is often neglected in games.

Players race to empty their hands and catch opposing players with cards left in theirs, which score points. In turns, players attempt to play a card by matching its color, number, or word to the topmost card on the discard pile. If unable to play, players draw a card from the draw pile, and if still unable to play, they pass their turn. Wild and special cards spice things up a bit.

UNO is a commercial version of Crazy Eights, a public domain card game played with a standard deck of playing cards.

The First Sparks transports the Funkenschlag mechanisms into the Stone Age. The order of phases during a game round, the player order, the technology cards: you know all these parts from “Funkenschlag”. But what is new? What is different?

The First Sparks is much faster and far more direct. You are immediately part of the action. Each turn, each decision is important. As a clan leader you decide on the well-being of your clan during the Stone Age. You need to develop new hunting technologies and get new knowledge - to successfully hunt food or to learn to control fire. With the help of these skills, you will harvest enough food to feed your clan and spread it far enough to reach new hunting areas.

Cashflow 101 is a serious game designed by investor, businessman, and self-help author Robert Kiyosaki to serve as a tool for learning basic financial strategies and accounting principles. Cashflow 101 is the first of several games created by Kiyosaki to reinforce the information in his books.

The board has two tracks: A Rat Race small circle where you only roll one die to advance, and a Fast Track where you roll two dice to advance. In the Rat Race you get paid for passing your Paycheck space, and then draw from one of four decks of cards depending on which space youve landed. Some of the deals are good, others are bad. Your main problem here is a shortage of cash. In the Fast Track your main problem is an excess of cash and finding investments to sink it into before you lose it to lawsuits, divorce or tax audits.

The game comes with four identical sets of ten paintings, each depicting a scene packed (to greater and lesser extents) with various objects. Each of up to four players or teams uses their own set, so there’s no craning around to see the picture at the far end of the table. In fact, spiffy cardboard easels prop up the scenes nicely so they’re easier to view. Everyone loads identical scenes onto their easels and a deck of cards provides a letter for the round. Everyone gets sixty seconds to write down as many things beginning with that letter as they can find in the scene. Although each word can be used only once - a football and baseball wouldn’t count as two BALLS - an object can be used multiple times for different words (e.g., BASEBALL, BALL). Once time has expired, players read through the lists. Any object on multiple lists scores one point for those who wrote it. Any item unique to a single list scores three points. When all lists have been scored everyone advances to the next scene and a new letter is chosen. The high score after all 12 scenes wins.

Siege is a quick game of strategy and deduction for 2-6 players in which you must use brains and brawn to survive.

As a would-be King, you control a castle of brave warriors and crafty subjects. To win, you must move your forces wisely, deduce your opponents plans, and strike when the opportunity presents.
Lose your King and your opportunity to rule dissolves. Defeat your foes and your place in history will be remembered forever.

Steampunk Rally is a strategy game that incorporates steampunk as more than just a bit of chrome. Using a unique dice-placement mechanism, players take on the roles of famous inventors from the turn of the last century like Nikola Tesla and Marie Curie, constructing fantastical contraptions that make use of steam, heat and electricity in an attempt to win a no-holds-barred race through the Swiss alps.

Each round starts with a card draft in which players carefully select machine parts to add to their invention and one-shot boost cards to aid them or hinder opponents. Players also have the option of discarding drafted cards for dice or cogs to power their invention, but they must make this tricky choice when each card is drafted.

Then, after venting dice to revitalize their machines, players roll their dice and use them to activate machine parts which provide things like movement, shielding, and additional dice with which to activate more parts. Driving through terrain causes damage, and if a players damage gauge ends up in the red at the end of the turn, they must lose parts from their invention. These will need to be replaced in the draft phase, constantly forcing players to discover new synergies.

An unknown terrorist organization is on the rise, looking to spread fear while profiting from the chaos they release. You, your fellow members of the Retro City Bomb Squad, and your trusty Bomb Squad Robot are the only barriers in the way between those dastardly villains and the innocent civilians of Retro City. Lives are at stake — and time is ticking — so lets go!

Bomb Squad is a cooperative game in which 2-6 players are members of a team operating a disposal robot with the mission to disarm bombs and save hostages. The players work together, racing against the clock to provide the appropriate instructions for the robot to achieve their mission objectives.

In Ethnos, players call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halfings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins!

In more detail, the land of Ethnos contains twelve tribes of fantasy creatures, and in each game you choose six of them (five in a 23-player game), then create a deck with only the creatures in those tribes. The cards come in six colors, which match the six regions of Ethnos. Place three glory tokens in each region, arranging them from low to high.

King of New York is a standalone game from designer Richard Garfield that keeps the core ideas of King of Tokyo while introducing new ways to play. As in KoT, your goal is to be the first monster to collect 20 victory points (VPs) or to be the last monster standing. On your turn, you roll six dice up to three times, then carry out the actions on those dice. Claws cause damage to other monsters, hearts heal damage to yourself, and energy is stored up so that you can purchase power cards that provide unique effects not available to anyone else.

Skull King uses a 66-card deck that consists of five escape cards, four suits numbered 1-13, five pirate cards, 1 Scary Mary card, 1 Skull King card, and 2 mermaid cards. The game lasts ten rounds, and in each round, each player is dealt as many cards as the number of the round. All players simultaneously bid on the number of tricks they think theyll take by holding out a fist and on the count of three revealing a certain number of fingers (or possibly a closed fist for a bid of zero tricks).

Playing with emotions has never been so much fun as in Ikonikus, a.k.a. icontact. In the game, a player raises an issue and the others must choose which of their cards best represents that emotion. Each card represents an emotion with multiple readings.

In this game, each player receives a set of five plastic cups, each a different color; a deck of 24 cards is shuffled and placed face down in the center of the table next to the bell. One player flips over the top card, which depicts colored objects – trains, birds, cups, etc. – stacked vertically or horizontally, then everyone tries to recreate this colored sequence with her own set of cups. The first player to do slams the bell, revels in the soul-brightening ding, then (if correct), claims the card. Someone then reveals the next card, and the players start shuffling cups once again.

An association game. Draw a card with a word eg. a beach. name something on a beach an then its the next players turn. You lose if you fail to come up with a word when the bomb explodes.

Similar to its older sibling Pass the Bomb this version is for younger players. Children will easily recognize the familiar scenes on each card.

In turn, each player has to think of an object that might be found in the picture on the card: for instance, if the scene is a beach, then perhaps sandcastle, or ‘bucket,’ or even ‘whale’ might be good answers.